Every time I check into your site and see that the latest updates include the continuing revolution in pictures, I brace myself. Good thing, because the photos of the Buddhist monks in the cathedral were pretty depressing. However, they were not surprising, given the current state of affairs in the Church.

Thank you for giving us these pictures so that we can keep abreast of the Great Apostasy as it unfolds before our eyes.

I can't help but thinking that maybe, possibly, the sede-vacantists and those who claim that the current Catholic Church is not the real Catholic Church are correct. Would any real Catholic ever do what our current church leaders are doing every day?

What is the average laymen like myself to do? I do, however, take comfort in the comment of the great St. Athanasius about the Arian bishops of his day: They have the churches but we have the faith.

In Christ,

S.M.C.

TIA responds:

Dear S.M.C.,

With due respect for your personal difficulties, allow us to say that when you lose the supernatural compass in analyzing the present crisis in the Church and you think based only on natural reasons, you lean toward the wrong conclusions that sede-vacantism is correct and the Catholic Church is not the true Church. These are temptations of despair inspired by a naturalist mentality.

This would be like someone who - watching Our Lord Jesus Christ pass on the Way of the Cross, covered with blood and spittle, faltering under the weight of the enormous Cross - would say: "This disfigured man cannot be the Son of God."

Nonetheless, that Man was the true God. For the observer to be convinced of it, he would need to have recourse to a supernatural reasoning: "This is the Man I saw practicing and preaching the good, curing the paralytic and blind, resurrecting Lazarus, multiplying the bread to feed the multitudes. This is the Man who I saw denouncing the unfaithful Jews and, for this very reason, He was unjustly persecuted and condemned to death. This Man is now here before me, heading to His mysterious and supreme sacrifice. By offering Himself to death, He is opening eternal life for all of us."

Analogously, the Church today is the same Church we have seen in the past glorifying God in her Holy Worship, in her Divine Office, in her Hierarchy and Papacy, in her Religious Orders. She is the Church Who civilized the barbarians and educated the peoples for earth and heaven, who built civilizations of incomparable glory, who destroyed evildoers of all kinds everywhere, who opposed the Devil and his cohorts - Masons, Jews, heretics and schismatics. For the latter reason, she was infiltrated by her enemies and today she is doing what they want her to do.

This is not the hour to abandon the Mystical Body of Christ to her enemies and run off to some solitary forest to avoid personal inconveniences. This is the hour to enter the battle with increased vigor, to re-conquer every inch of soil the enemies took and rebuild in that place the same sacred institution more militant, pure and glorious than ever, so that she will be ready to face, under the protection of Our Lady, all other possible enemies until the end times.

The average man like yourself has the duty to see clearly, to discern, to judge and to do whatever he can to help the cause of this Reconquest. The best thing to do in any circumstance is to pray, to be more united with Our Lord and Our Lady in this difficult time. Remember that God never allows a temptation more powerful than the graces He gives to us. Try to discern this grace and correspond to it.

We hope these considerations will enhance your supernatural perception.

Cordially,

TIA correspondence desk

Can You Please Offer Advice?

Dear TIA,

I go to your website every day, usually more than once, and read your "Latest Updates" among other items. I've been reading, studying and meditating upon your articles regarding "Sede-Vacantism."

I'm a revert to the faith, I drifted away from the faith in the early 1970s. When I returned to the faith a few years ago, I joined my Parish's Knights of Columbus, taught various RCIA classes and young adults the faith.

I was a child during the late 1950's and early 1960's so I have personal remembrance of how things were prior to Vatican II, and when I returned to the faith I realized the faith I left in the early 1970s is not the same faith I see taught and practiced today.

So I tried to reconcile Vatican II teachings with the historic Catholic faith as handed down from Jesus to the Apostles and unto us, but couldn't. Like oil and water which does not mix together, today's Catholic faith as practiced since Vatican II cannot be reconciled with the historic Catholic faith.

"On the Way of the Cross, Our Lord Jesus Christ was so transformed by the sufferings inflicted on Him that he did not look like the Son of God. So, also His Church today is disfigured from the suffering inflicted by Progressivism. To leave the Church at this moment by declaring that one no longer recognizes in her the Catholic majesty of old, and saying that one wants just to preserve his own spiritual well-being is equivalent to abandoning Him during His Passion."

I never thought I had abandoned Our Lord Jesus Christ during his Passion.

I also read your posting Sede-Vacantism? by Dan O'Connell where he writes: "Our Lord accepted Annas and Caiaphas as High Priests."

These two articles pricked me in the heart! Like the crowd who heard St. Peter's first sermon after he received the Holy Ghost and asked him, I asked you, "Now when they had heard these things, they had compunction in their heart and said to Peter and to the rest of the apostles: What shall we do, men and brethren?" Acts 2:37 DRV.

I am confused, and want to obey God through His Holy Church. I ask you in all sincerity, "What shall I do?" Should I begin attending my local post-Conciliar Parish and be a light to the congregation as you write, "holding high the banner of Catholic truth and tradition?"

I do not want to abandon Our Lord Jesus Christ during his Passion, nor the Faith in its hour of need. Can you please offer me advice on the correct action I should take?

Sincerely,

R.T.

TIA responds:

Dear R.T.,

Thank you for your fidelity in visiting our website everyday. To reach readers like you is the goal of our efforts.

We thank you also for the confidence you reveal in opening your soul to us and asking advice. It is a noble position we highly commend.

Regarding your question - "What to do? Should I go to my local post conciliar parish to hold the standard of truth and tradition?" - we would answer: No. Do not do that. Instead, try to find a church where you can attend a Tridentine Mass and receive the Sacraments. Then, try to follow the Passion of the Church and be in solidarity with her, dedicating more time to reparation. Keep in mind, however, that the best reparation is to fight against Progressivism and try to help either intellectually, morally or materially those who are in the front lines of the Counter-Revolution.

Although your letter reveals that you maintain a supernatural view of the crisis in the Church, perhaps you would benefit by reading our previous answer, which contains some points that may apply to you when it addresses what to do.

"Two great founders of the Religious Orders, St. Alphonsus of the Redemptorists and St. John Bosco of the Salesians, had a very special devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel and both wore her Scapular. When they died each was buried in priestly vestments and Scapular. "

From what I have understood, St. John Bosco's body has remained incorrupt? Is this correct?

Thanks,

M.N.

TIA responds:

M.N.,

We believe you are correct. The body of St. John Bosco is incorrupt according to the data you may find here.

Cordially,

TIA correspondence desk

Warning: This answer is not precise. Please read the correct information here.

Posted July 28, 2011

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